"When I came here as an actor, I did one night in the haunted house -- hated it. I hosted the hay ride the next night -- hated it," says Brandt.

"Then I was asked if I knew how to run a chainsaw."

Haunting is the name of the game on Halloween, and nobody loves scaring people like the crew at Witch's Woods, which opened for the season on Sept. 28 at Nashoba Valley Ski Area. Witch's Woods attracts 48,000 visitors a season, combining thrills, humor and outright creepiness to bring frightful fun to the entire family. Zombies, vampires, killer clowns and chainsaw-wielding maniacs are just a few of the characters you'll find waiting around the corner at Witch's Woods.

"The people who work at Witch's Woods love this kind of stuff," says Pam Fletcher, marketing director for Nashoba Valley Ski Area. "They get so into it, which is fun for them but more fun for the people they're scaring."

Witch's Woods needs a large, diverse cast of 150 actors to fill out its expansive campus, which includes three maze attractions, a "Killer Thriller Stage Show," a walk-through tribute to your favorite monsters (dubbed "Horrorwood"), and a midway full of food, carnival games and sketchy characters. The houses are broken down by rooms, with each actor sticking to a role (whether it's saying a certain line, screaming bloody murder, or standing still in the corner with a terrifying grin) specified in the official script.

But Witch's Woods doesn't just take anybody. Brandt has to sift through hundreds of applications a year, giving preference to people with a theater background or experience in the "haunt industry." There are some newcomers, but there are a lot of regulars that come back every year, ranging from the minimum age of 18 to people in their 60s.

"The cast is like a crayon box -- all different kinds," says Brandt, who handled the chainsaw with glee for four years before eventually moving up to creative director. "We've got teachers, electricians, moms, dads -- we've even had a whole family of actors."

The actors end up becoming a family themselves throughout the entire Witch's Woods cycle. The Nashoba crew begins transforming the ski area in mid-August, putting up the various sets and robotic monsters throughout the park and changing the ski cafe into "Nightmare Mansion." The creative team then goes through the process of creating an original script and assigning roles to the actors, who need to know their part backwards and forwards. Even with an average of 2,000 visitors per night (sometimes up to 4,800), weather can sometimes curtail business -- but the show must go on.

"You can't have a play and take a bunch of scenes out," says Al Fletcher, president of Nashoba Valley Ski Area. If you've ever wanted to live through one of those scenes, here's your chance."